of a
prouder race, nor on the same site, but two miles distant on the winding
of the river shore (whence it took its name), a rude building partly of
timber and partly of Roman brick, adjoining a large monastery and
surrounded by a small hamlet, constituted the palace of the saint-king.

So rode the Earl and his four fair sons, all abreast, into the courtyard
of Windshore [127]. Now when King Edward heard the tramp of the steeds
and the hum of the multitudes, as he sate in his closet with his abbots
and priests, all in still contemplation of the thumb of St. Jude, the
King asked:

"What army, in the day of peace, and the time of Easter, enters the gates
of our palace?"

Then an abbot rose and looked out of the narrow window, and said with a
groan:

"Army thou mayst well call it, O King!--and foes to us and to thee head
the legions----"

"Inprinis," quoth our abbot the scholar; "thou speakest, I trow, of the
wicked Earl and his sons."

The King's face changed. "Come they," said he, "with so large a train?
This smells more of vaunt than of loyalty; naught--very naught."

"Alack!" said one of the conclave, "I fear me that the men of Belial will
work us harm; the heathen are mighty, and----"

"Fear not," said Edward, with benign loftiness, observing that his guests
grew pale, and himself, though often weak to childishness, and morally
wavering and irresolute,--still so far king and gentleman, that he knew
no craven fear of the body. "Fear not for me, my fathers; humble as I
am, I am strong in the faith of heaven and its angels."

The Churchmen looked at each other, sly yet abashed; it was not precisely
for the King that they feared.

Then spoke Alred, the good prelate and constant peacemaker--fair column
and lone one of the fast-crumbling Saxon Church. "It is ill in you,
brethren to arraign the truth and good meaning of those who honour your
King; and in these days that lord should ever be the most welcome who
brings to the halls of his king the largest number of hearts, stout and
leal."

"By your leave, brother Alred," said Stigand, who, though from motives of
policy he had aided those who besought the King not to peril his crown by
resisting the return of Godwin, benefited too largely by the abuses of
the Church to be sincerely espoused to the cause of the strong-minded
Earl; "By your leave, brother Alred, to every leal heart is a ravenous
mouth; and the treasures of the King are well-nigh drained in fee